1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a control and detection device for checking the plausibility of a wrong-way driving incident of a motor vehicle when entering a unidirectional roadway.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wrong-way drivers, also referred to as “ghost drivers,” cause deaths, injuries, and significant property damage in the event of an accident. A wrong-way driving incident is understood here to mean driving against the compulsory direction of traffic on a unidirectional roadway. A unidirectional roadway is a roadway that is structurally separated from oncoming traffic. Unidirectional roadways are found on expressways or thruways, such as upgraded federal highways. Wrong-way driving incidents may be divided into forward travel and reverse travel, forward travel being initiated by wrongly entering an off-ramp or by turning.
Over one-half of wrong-way driving incidents start at junctions of expressways. In particular, wrong-way driving incidents on expressways, cause accidents due to the high vehicle speeds, and thus the high collision speeds, frequently with fatal consequences.
Recognizing wrong-way driving incidents via navigation devices is not always reliably possible, since the information of the navigation device, such as road class and direction, is provided too late for most cases of wrong-way driving incidents; i.e., the vehicles are then already in the driving path against the direction of traffic.
Modern motor vehicles use inertial sensors, such as acceleration and yaw rate sensors, and the steering angle to determine the vehicle status, to implement safety and comfort systems. In addition, a variety of motor vehicles presently have an internal GPS module, for example, for a navigation system or a position determination of the motor vehicle. Now and in the future, more and more vehicles are being equipped with video sensors, which also process and output different items of information.